AZ Medicaid program needs to improve fraud, abuse investigations

The state's Medicaid program needs to do a better job of investigating fraud and abuse to prevent the waste of taxpayer dollars, the Auditor General's Office reported Tuesday. The examination found that the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System simply puts off looking into many cases that it cannot immediately investigate. The result is that some of these cases are not even opened for a year or more after there has been an allegation of fraud or abuse. And even once these cases are actually opened, one in four took at least another six months to resolve.